


Illic

by MccoyKat



Series: Violence Inherent in the System [2]
Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Boarding School, Canon Disabled Character, Implied/Referenced Torture, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 02:49:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5810677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MccoyKat/pseuds/MccoyKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To be clear, it wasn’t that Charles was avoiding it, per se. He wanted to wait until Erik was comfortable enough to actually act out. To act free, without the reservations he currently had. He wanted to have an honest conversation with the boy. Even if it would end up being a large deal of yelling, as he guessed it would, then that was alright.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Illic

**Author's Note:**

> I've decided to continue on this lovely, random-ass AU that is doing nothing but provided an escape from school work. Enjoy.

Charles offered counselling to all his students. He always insisted on a couple sessions when the student first arrived at the school. It created a relationship of trust. It ensured that the students didn’t have abandonment issues with their parents leaving them. It also gave Charles an opportunity to get a read on each kid. In those first sessions, Charles often spoke about himself as much as the children. He also made sure to keep steaming mugs of tea present to give everyone something to fidget with.

Some of the students even came back for later sessions, not that Charles minded at all. In fact, he was pretty happy with this unexpected addition to his school. He was also thrilled that his students trusted him that much. He had a M.D. in psychology anyway, he may as well use it.

He’d sorted out various bits of teen angst (Scott, you and Alex had another fight. It happens. You know he still loves you, right?). He'd sorted out temper issues (Alex, I cannot have you burning a hole in the wall just because you’re angry. We need better strategies). He'd talked, at length, about the issue of puberty in general (Sean, for the last time, it’s normal). He'd mitigated self confidence blunders (Anna-Marie, you aren’t able to touch someone. It doesn’t mean that you aren’t worthy of love. Someday, more people than just us will understand that). He'd navigated social nightmares (I’m sure they didn’t notice, Kitty. You’re rather fond of projecting your worst fears onto others).  In one awkward case, he reassured a student who was in the middle of a sexual maturing (Kurt, you will not go to hell for touching yourself in a way that doesn’t harm you, I promise).

Some students, like Kitty, showed up for sessions after the first few. Some students, like Alex, wouldn’t show up unless they had to. Or, in Alex’s case, whenever Scott made him. Some students, like Logan, weren’t even in the school enough to even talk to Charles unless he had to. Logan wasn't young enough to technically be a student, but that was a different matter altogether.

The only student who didn't have the choice of counselling was Erik. It wasn’t anything about Erik himself, but rather his situation. He'd lived in Shaw’s military compound as an _experiment_. That meant that there was no way Erik wasn’t going to be getting some sort of help for his mental health. Charles had offered him the opportunity to go outside of the school to see a psychologist. A psychologist that wasn’t also his teacher and housemate. He didn’t want the boy to rely too much on him as one of his only positive influences. Erik hadn’t seemed to want to go outside of the school at all. He'd insisted that he hated to travel more than he had to, and he didn’t want to deal with a human.

Charles had let the human bit slide then. He was going to tackle the issue that Erik had with humans. But not until he figured out what had actually happened to him at the compound. Moira hadn’t been particularly forthcoming with top secret information. So Charles only had the information that Erik chose to give. As far as Charles knew, Shaw and all his close associates had all been mutants. And, as Charles was going to mention in his next biology lecture, mutants were actually human. But Erik still seemed to hate them. He'd even been uncomfortable around Moira.

But that wasn’t even something that he thought he should approach Erik with yet. He didn’t want to outright challenge the kid. He could tell from the set of Erik’s eyebrows that it would be a fantastic altercation when the time came. But he knew that now wouldn’t be the best time.

To be clear, it wasn’t that Charles was avoiding it. He wanted to wait until Erik was comfortable enough to actually act out. To act free, without the reservations he currently had. He wanted to have an honest conversation with the boy. Even if it would end up being a large deal of yelling, as he guessed it would, then that was alright.

But they weren’t there yet.

At least, that’s what Charles’ notes said. Last week had been simple, easy, they just chatted about Moira, which is how Charles learned that Erik hated her. Erik’s mind didn’t quite read hate, though. Charles still didn’t press it. He imagined that a relationship with the woman who dragged you out of your only home would be complicated.

With a final glance at the bottom of the page, he closed the notebook with a firm snap. He then rolled his way out from under the desk. Erik was due to come into the office any minute, as the lunch hours on Thursday were when they met. Because it was the only day where Charles wasn’t teaching directly before lunch.

Charles always tried to be on the same side of the giant desk as whoever he was speaking with. He didn’t like the idea of a barrier between them. He also knew for a fact that Erik found the metal of his chair comforting. Charles wasn’t sure if it was simply because there was a large amount of metal nearby. Or rather if it was because Erik was capable of stopping Charles in his tracks, if he wanted. Either way, Charles liked to keep closer to Erik than the massive desk would allow.

Erik, as per usual, knocked on the door ten minutes after class had ended. Charles knew for a fact that it was just enough time for Erik to get back to his room to drop off his things before making his way to the office. His mind waited patiently on the other side of the door.

“Come on in,” Charles called to the door, “It’s open.”

Erik entered, making sure to carefully close the door after him. He stood just on the inside of the door, his hands loosely at his sides.

“Have a seat,” Charles said, gesturing to the number of chairs that were in his office.

Erik had been brought up as an experiment, and so free will had seemed to be not much more than a concept to him. He was so much better now, a couple months in, but things like taking a seat for himself still didn’t come naturally.

“How did you manage in getting to sleep last night?” Charles asked, right away. Erik didn’t like small talk, so Charles didn’t waste his time.

“I managed.” Erik said. He didn’t offer anything more.

“I’m going to take that as not well,” Charles said lightly, “You know, we can try some behavioural therapy. If we get you into a good enough routine it may help.”

Erik shrugged. Charles carefully brushed against the boy’s mind. He wasn’t being difficult, he was just exhausted.

“That’s what we’ll focus on for today then. I want you to try and go to bed earlier, alright? Use a distinct routine, and then we’ll try following that same routine every single night for a couple of weeks. Eventually your body will start to shut itself down for the night once it recognizes what the routine means. You should then be able to avoid this exhaustion, alright love?”

Erik just looked at him.

Charles rolled over to the desk and picked up the notebook. He opened it to a fresh page and moved over beside Erik so the boy could see what he was writing.

They spent half an hour planning out a bedtime routine that Charles hoped would do the trick. He wasn’t sure though. Erik seemed calm enough when he left the session, but the anger was very near to the surface.

Erik felt as though Charles was babying him. Erik almost hated him for it.

Charles sighed. He wasn’t _trying_ to be patronizing, but this was one of the only behavioural abnormalities that Erik had, and so it would be the priority.

Charles knew that eventually they’d have to get down to the gritty act of testing Erik to figure out how to best treat him for the Post-Traumatic Stress that he had. Erik was coping for now though. And Charles wanted to wait until Erik was slightly more comfortable in the school before they got down to it. Erik was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, and Charles needed to them to get past this stage. He needed to be prepared for once they did though, and he made a mental note to contact Moira on any information she had on the boy.

He just hoped that his student would follow the routine. As patronizing as it was, something as simple as a bedtime routine could create a lot of comfort, even for someone as inexpressive as Erik.

If he casually stopped by Erik’s room at nine-thirty, that was just a coincidence. Erik’s light was off, and his mind was surrounded by a comfort that was telling of the bed he was in, but his mind was racing.

The boy was exhausted, and Charles could feel the little bits of horror slipping in and out of his mind. Erik was worried about falling asleep while others in the house were still awake, despite his door being locked. He also had aches and chills running through his body, a sure sign of withdrawal.

How had Charles missed _that_? He’d been so concerned about how Erik had been doing in school that he hadn’t looked for a drug reliance, or any sort of testing. His mental health was sure to be well looked after, but his physical health had barely been looked at after Moira had assured him that it was fine.

But Erik had been in the school for more than a month, and withdrawal should have been far out of his system by then. That didn’t even account for the three weeks that Erik had been in the care of the CIA.

Psychosomatic then? Erik may be so used to being drugged by something that he couldn’t sleep without it. Interesting. What had Shaw been using him for that he’d have to keep a boy drugged most of the time?

As Charles made his way down to his office, his mind supplied him with options. They could potentially use placebo pills, or maybe just wait out the trial of this new behavioural therapy.  

Moira didn’t pick up the phone, so Charles sent her a quick email.

_You owe me some answers in regards to Erik, or at least a couple files. He’s doing fairly well, but I don’t want to be using ineffective strategies. Since he won’t tell me what happened to him, I have no idea if what I’m doing is effective._

He sent the email without proof-reading it, and shut down his computer. It wasn’t his turn to do the night-checks, so he decided to get some marking done and head to bed early.


End file.
